Cell therapy is an increasingly important treatment for several types of disorders, injuries, malignancies and diseases. Cell therapy involves the infusion, application or transplant of cells to a patient, whereby the infused, applied or transplanted cells are either derived from a donor other than the patient (allogeneic) or from the patient themselves (autologous). Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are one cell type that has shown promise for therapeutic use.
Despite their promise, the clinical results obtained to date with MSC have been generally poor. The major reason for these poor clinical outcomes appears to be due the way the MSC have been produced. For example, most MSC are cultured in fetal calf serum which is then removed by simply washing the cells post-harvest. However, this simple washing may not remove bovine proteins attached to the cell surface or those located within the cells which may later be incorporated into the external cell surface. These cells, on implantation, will then appear foreign to patients with antibodies to bovine proteins present in their blood (incidence approximately 40-50% Australian population), be recognised by the patient's immune system and be destroyed before delivering their therapeutic benefit.
Thus, there is a continuing need for methods of producing cells for cell therapy.